AFRICA 1

The major legislative attention of Congress in 1974 with respect to Africa focused on aspects of U.S. aid policy and an effort to repeal the Byrd amendment, which permits the importation of strategic materials in contravention of U.N. sanctions.

In the area of U.S. aid policy, the Congress adopted several pieces of legislation with implications for Africa. The Foreign Assistance Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-559) requested the President to increase Africa's share of the Agency for International Development (AID) loans and grants and to provide the developing nations of Africa with an equitable share of United States economic assistance (sec. 49). It appeared to mark a congressional effort to reverse a trend of declining levels of U.S. aid to Africa, and the policy of focusing development aid on a few selected African nations where it was believed aid would achieve the most substantial results, such as Zaire and Nigeria, rather than the poorest African nations. In addition, the Foreign Assistance Act contained other statements of congressional policy on Africa. One of these was a statement of policy with respect to the independence of the Portuguese territories of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, which called upon the President to take steps to show U.S. support for the peaceful transition of these territories to independence (sec. 50). The agreements by the Portuguese Government to grant independence to her overseas territories seemed likely to end the opposition to the United States-Portuguese Azores Base agreement. In the past, Members of Congress opposed to Portuguese colonial policy argued that U.S. aid given in return for use of the base supported the Portuguese war efforts in its colonies.

Legislation specifically directed at African nations included the Foreign Disaster Assistance Act (Public Law 93-333) which provided for $85 million in medium- and short-term rehabilitation aid for the drought afflicted African nations. In addition, the Foreign Assistance Act of 1974 authorized the President to provide up to $40 million in disaster relief assistance to any country.

Two pieces of legislation affecting United States-African relations did not pass both Houses in the 93d Congress. Legislation to repeal the Byrd amendment (S. 1868), was passed by the Senate and cleared by the House Rules Committee, but it was withdrawn by its supporters shortly before it was scheduled for a vote at the end of the 93d Congress. A bill to provide for U.S. participation in the African Development Fund was also passed by the Senate, but it was not acted on by the House (S. 2354).

Aid Policy Toward Africa.-Section 49 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1974 contained a statement of congressional policy on assistance to Africa. The President was requested to revise the regional allocation of economic development assistance and to increase Africa's

Prepared by Susan M. Mowle, Analyst in International Relations.

share of the Agency for International Development loans and grants. In addition, the act stated that a special effort should be made to provide more assistance to the 16 of the world's 25 least developed countries that are in Africa and to the 14 African nations that are judged to be most seriously affected by rising costs of food and fuel. The President was also requested to make a report on action taken to provide the developing countries of Africa with an equitable share of U.S. economic assistance.

The Sahelian famine, as well as famine and food shortages in other areas of the world, led to the inclusion of several provisions in the Foreign Assistance Act which could also affect U.S. aid policy toward Africa. Section 2 of the act stated a congressional finding that due to rising world food, fertilizer, and petroleum costs, human suffering and deprivation were growing in the poorest and most slowly developing countries. As a result, section 2 specified that in the allocation of funds, special attention should be given to increasing agricultural production in countries with per capita incomes under $300 a year, and which were the most severely affected by sharp increases in worldwide commodity prices.

Section 55 of the Foreign Assistance Act called upon the President and Secretary of State to take several steps to mobilize appropriate resources to meet the world food emergency. These include appropriate adjustments in the level of food and fertilizer assistance programs to those countries on the U.N. designated list of 32 countries "most seriously affected" by the current economic crisis, and by restricting any more than 30 percent of concessional food aid being allocated to nations other than those most seriously affected by current food shortages, unless the President demonstrated that the use of such food assistance was solely for humanitarian food purposes. In addition, the President was called upon to report to Congress on a global assessment of food needs for fiscal year 1975, and on what steps were being taken to encourage other countries to increase their participation in food assistance, and to implement the resolutions and recommendations of the World Food Congress.

Disaster Relief for the Drought Afflicted African Nations.-The Foreign Disaster Assistance Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-333) allocated $85 million for medium- and short-term assistance to the drought afflicted African nations, of which not more than $10 million was earmarked for Ethiopia. The Sahelian nations of West Africa, who have been experiencing a 7-year drought, were among the other major beneficiaries of this legislation. These include Mauritania, Chad, Mali, Niger, Upper Volta, and Senegal. In addition, it is possible that additional funds could be made available for African drought relief through section 28 of the Foreign Assistance Act. According to this section, the President may provide up to $40 million in famine or disaster relief assistance to any foreign country on such terms and conditions as he may determine.

Portuguese Africa.-The Foreign Assistance Act of 1974 included a statement of congressional policy with respect to the independence of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, calling upon the President and the Secretary of State to take certain actions to make clear U.S. support for a peaceful and orderly transition to independence in the Portuguese African territories (sec. 50). The actions include an official

statement of U.S. support for their independence; encouragement of U.N. support for a peaceful settlement of all differences and protection of human rights in these territories, and readiness by AID to cooperate in providing the kind of assistance that will help make their independence viable. Section 53 authorized $5 million in grants and $20 million in loans to provide economic assistance to Portugal and the former territories. This aid was included at the request of the Secretary of State because it was deemed important that the United States demonstrate support for the transition to independence of Portuguese Africa, as well as indicating interest in Portugal's transition to democracy.

Rhodesian Chrome.-The Byrd amendment, passed in 1971, permitted the importation of strategic materials such as chrome, ferrochrome, and nickel from Rhodesia contrary to U.N. imposed sanctions. Debate on the bill to repeal this legislation (S. 1868) focused on how American national security interests were affected by reliance on Soviet chrome, the economic well being of the domestic ferrochrome and stainless steel industries, U.S. international treaty obligations, and U.S. relations with the United Nations and the independent African nations. The Senate passed S. 1868 in December 1973. In the House, the legislation cleared both the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Rules Committee and was twice scheduled for a floor vote. However, in December 1974, the bill was withdrawn shortly before it was scheduled for consideration.

Other Congressional Activities.-Two other measures relating to U.S.. policy toward southern Africa did not pass in 1974. In the Senate, an amendment to the Trade Reform Act of 1974 was proposed which would have denied U.S. companies credit for taxes paid to any government whose "administration has been held illegal by the International Court of Justice and the United States Government has accepted the conclusions of such ** * opinion." In practice, this legislation would only have applied to Namibia (South-West Africa). In the House legislation to deny Federal contracts to firms which do not enforce U.S. fair employment practices was aimed at requiring American firms operating in South Africa to adhere to American labor standards in its relations with nonwhite employees.

Concern over publicized cases of violations of human rights in U.S. aid recipient nations led to the inclusion of a section on human rights in the Foreign Assistance Act (sec. 46). It stated that it is the sense of Congress that except in extraordinary circumstances, the President shall substantially reduce or terminate security assistance to any government which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.

WESTERN EUROPE1

Throughout 1974 the Congress exerted more influence than in the recent past on U.S. relations with Western European countries and showed a greater sense of independence of executive guidance in this field. These characteristics were exhibited in all three of the major areas of congressional interest in West European developments: (1) NATO; (2) U.S. relations with the European Communities (EC); and (3) Greek-Turkish relations, although in varying degrees.

In regard to NATO the Congress applied legislative pressure to the issues of troop levels, burden sharing, and tactical atomic weapons policy. However, the pressure was moderate and specific in character and did not challenge the basic administration policy of continuing U.S. combat troop levels at current levels until mutual East-West force reductions are agreed upon in the Vienna Mutual Balanced Force Reduction (MBFR) negotiations. Thus an amendment to the military procurement authorizations calling for troop reductions applied only to headquarters and noncombat military personnel located in Europe and was limited in extent to 18,000. However, there is no reason to believe that the debate over the reduction of combat troops in Europe has ended. A sign to the contrary was the failure by only two votes of an amendment in the Senate limiting the number of active duty military personnel to be assigned outside the United States after December 31, 1975, to 361,000 men.

Congressional action in the field of defense burden sharing has also been moderate and constructive. A report requirement imposed by section 812(d) of the Department of Defense Appropriation Authorization Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-155) may have stimulated action. The President was required throughout 1974 to report periodically on the progress made by NATO allies in offsetting fully any balance of payments deficit incurred by the deployment of U.S. forces to NATO Europe. Moreover, the provision in Public Law 93-155 for reducing. U.S. forces in Europe if European allies fail to offset the U.S. deficit undoubtedly contributed to the increased efforts in 1974 to deal with the balance-of-payments problem.

In addition, the Congress imposed a freeze on the total number of nuclear warheads located in Europe and called on the Secretary of Defense to conduct a study of the use of nuclear weapons in Europe.

In the field of economic relations with the Economic Communities the Congress also showed independence. The administration was eager to have the Trade Reform Bill of 1974 enacted, partly to facilitate trade and tariff negotiations with industrial trading partners of which the EC countries were important members. Congress considered that the issue of the emigration of Soviet Jews justified holding up the legislation for a year and a half. It therefore refused to remove

1 Prepared by Edward Lampson, Analyst in European Affairs.

title IV (which dealt with the special case of the Soviet Union) from the rest of the bill and to treat it separately despite the desire of the administration to do so in order to get tariff negotiations started.

The independence of the Congress was also demonstrated in the case of the Greek-Turkish conflict. Against the strong opposition of the administration the Congress consistently pressed for applying economic sanctions to the Turkish Government by cutting off military aid shipments on the ground that Turkey had violated the terms of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 by using U.S.-supplied military materiel in the invasion of Cyprus.

NATO. The U.S. commitment to NATO was the subject of recurring debate in the second session of the 93d Congress. The main questions at issue were: (1) U.S. troops levels in Europe; (2) burden sharing within the North Atlantic Alliance; and (3) the role of tactical nuclear weapons in NATO's strategic plans for the defense of Europe. (1) Troop Levels in Europe.-Both the House and the Senate defeated attempts to make significant reductions in U.S. troop levels in Europe during the consideration of military procurement authorizations for fiscal year 1975 (H.R. 14592 and S. 3000).

On May 22, 1974, the House rejected by a vote of 163 yeas to 240 nays an amendment to H.R. 14592 that sought to reduce the total of U.S. troops overseas by 198,000 and to place a ceiling of 293,000 on the number of troops to be assigned overseas after fiscal year 1975. It also rejected by the same vote an amendment to the previous amendment which sought to reduce the total number of U.S. troops by 100,000 by the end of calendar year 1975, with the reduction to be determined by the Department of Defense.

On June 6, 1974, the Senate rejected by a vote of 35 yeas to 54 nays an amendment to S. 3000 limiting to 312,000 the number of active duty military personnel to be assigned outside of the United States after December 31, 1975. Another amendment limiting to 361,000 the number of such personnel assigned outside the United States, effective December 31, 1975, was rejected by a vote of 44 yeas to 46 nays.

The rejection of these amendments reflected such factors as a skeptical mood among some Members of Congress concerning the meaning and implications of détente, especially in the aftermath of the Mideast war, a shift in the U.S. balance-of-payments situation vis-a-vis Western Europe, and the acceptance of the argument that unilateral troop cuts at this time would jeopardize the Mutual Balanced Force Reduction (MBFR) talks in Vienna. These particular views were expressed in a report by the Committee on Armed Services to the House required by section 301 (c) of the Department of Defense Appropriation Authorization Act, 1974 (Public Law 93-155) on the advisibility of maintaining our present military commitments in Europe. The report, issued on April 9, 1974, recommended that the United States not reduce its troop levels in Europe at this time.

Congress passed an amendment to H.R. 14592 (signed by President Nixon on August 5, 1974, as Public Law 93-365), which called for a reduction in the ratio of noncombat to combat troops in Europe. Section 302 (a) of the act required the Secretary of Defense to reduce headquarters and noncombat military personnel located in Europe by 18,000 as of June 30, 1976, but authorized the Secretary to increase the combat component by a comparable amount if necessary. The